She laid out the paint, brushes and mason jars on the table as students arrived, ready for students to show off their artistic abilities at the DIY Mason Jar Fairy Lights workshop.

Each workshop is an hour long, with activities that are short, simple and geared to inspire creativity in students. Future DIY workshops will include a magazine silhouette, tissue transfer art and ornament decorating.

Medina chooses the art projects for the workshops, many inspired by posts on Pinterest. She often finds that many DIY projects can look too expensive for students to try on their own.

“We, as ASI, provide all the tools that they need to create what they wanted but instead it’s free,” Medina said. “It’s kind of fun because now you have more freedom to do different crafts that you never thought you had a chance to do.”

Some students came with friends while others came alone and made friends during the activity. Many heard about the classes through flyers and social media.

“Me and my friend are pretty crafty, so we thought, ‘Why not?’ It looks fun and it was free and it’s to all students,” said Sarah Wernli, a freshman majoring in liberal studies.

Most followed the example shown in the tutorial video played at the beginning of the workshop by simply painting dots from the bottom of the jar and working their way up to the top. A few others added their own unique flair to their jars by painting flowers on the inside or using a permanent marker to create an exterior design.

Freshman Jessica Velazquez has attended most of the DIY workshops so far.

“I just like that it’s free, and I have the freedom to do whatever I want because if I want to do this myself, I don’t want to spend the money,” Velazquez said.

ASI recently granted funding for the DIY workshops to debut, with a $50 budget for each class. However, the price of these events come from the students’ wallets, since the ASI fee is included in student funds.

“It’s just an activity that anybody can go to and just have fun, so this is perfect,” Velazquez said. “I’m definitely going to coming back.”

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